Signature blocks again

Friday morning I had to drop something off at Mrs. Furui's house before going on to a class.

"Come in. Do you have 10 minutes?"

I had 10 minutes so I sat down at Mrs. Furui's dining room table and got the latest scoop around her neighborhood and the kindergarten.

Last week a little Down's Syndrome boy who had graduated from the kindergarten a couple of years ago, passed away from heart complications. Many of the teachers and kindergarten mothers and Mrs. Furui went to the funeral.

"Tanya, I want to make a signature quilt for Ken-chan's family. I was looking at your blog and saw that you had been making signature blocks. Do you think I could make blocks and take them to the kindergarten for the mothers and maybe some children to sign them?"

Well, yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea. And within the 10 minutes we had decided to get blocks made and to the kindergarten by this coming Monday. I'm included of course.

"I'm so sorry. You don't have to get involved if you don't want. I know you have so much else on your schedule."

"Don't worry about it. I want to help. I knew Ken-chan too. I even have some already made signature blocks that I decided not to use. I'll pull those out and that will help the block sewing go quickly."

But I came home and can not find those blocks.

"Oh, come on! This sewing room is not that big."

Not in the drawers. Not in the boxes. I've looked everywhere.

"What a waste of time. Just make some new ones."

So yesterday I went through my drawers and cut out fabric to Mrs. Furui's measurements. But the blocks were turning out a different size than she'd figured so I must have been doing something wrong. (Actually we were using different techniques.) I called.

"Mrs. Furui, my blocks are not the right size. And you are not using the technique that one normally uses to make signature blocks. (I'm such a know-it-all.) Are you free? I'll come over and we can work together on this."

Both of our husbands were working on a Saturday afternoon so what do two quilters want to do more than anything? It's a thirty minute drive to Mrs. Furui's but I gathered up my WIP and drove over.

Working together, Mrs. Furui and I made up 80 blocks (she was going to put the last 20 together today.) I cut, ironed and trimmed. Mrs. Furui sewed. I was at her house until nearly 5:00!

"I'm so sorry I got you involved, Tanya. You came into town yesterday and then again today. Maybe I should have just kept my plans to myself."

"Think how I would have felt if I'd found out later that you'd made a quilt without me! Working together on quilts is inevitable!"

It's true though that every time I cross Mrs. Furui's threshold I come home with a new project to work on. That woman! She is such a slave driver! But I love her lots and lots!

(Thus said she will have to forgive me for posting her picture. "Don't take my picture! I hate photos!" Don't we all!)

Does anybody remember where I put my signature blocks?